Support System
by TotalCSIfan
Summary: Nick Stokes faces danger every night he works, but when one of his biggest demons are in his own house, who will be there to help him cope? In the story the "kidnapping" refers to Grave danger season 5. the sports car line is from living doll, season 7.


Disclaimer: I own nothing of CSI

**Support System**

Jackie Stokes was just about ready to head back upstairs after retrieving something from her printer, in her office on the main floor of the house, when she noticed her husbands' shoes lying in the middle of the floor. She walked over and picked them up, as she did so she muttered to herself "Nicky, I swear, how hard is it to pick up a pair of shoes and put them in the closet." She turned towards the stairs when something caught her eye, something was moving. She went over for a closer look and gasped at what she saw. "Oh my god" she said out loud. She knew what to do though; she dropped the shoes and raced upstairs. She got the item she needed and raced back to her office. She thought it would solve the problem, but it only solved some of the problem. She wished she could call Grissom for help but she knew that was impossible because he was still in Paris teaching, so reaching for her cell phone in her pocket, she dialed another number. "Sidle" a voice said on the second ring. "Sara, thank god, listen I need your help." "Jackie, what's wrong?" A concerned Sara asked. "There is a long trail of red ants in my office, I tried to use the fire extinguisher but it only killed about half of them, and I don't have another extinguisher." She was nearing hysterics by now. "Is it the same type of ants that were in the nursery?" she asked. Jackie responded "I don't know, I don't know, I just know that they are ants, and they are red, and I need to get rid of them, quickly" "Alright, just calm down ok, I'm on my way over" Sara assured her. "If Nick finds out about this he is going to totally lose it" Jackie said. "He isn't going to know, just relax, take some deep breaths; I will be there in ten minutes" she said and hung up. While waiting Jackie knew she could not let her husband find out, she hated keeping things from him, but this was for his own good. Although Nick's nightmares were a lot less frequent then they used to be, they still occurred. She remembered one in particular, not too long after the kidnapping:

_Suddenly, in the middle of the night, Nick had started screaming at the top of his lungs. He clawed at his skin as if it were on fire. In a desperate attempt to wake him, Jackie shook him gently, but Nick wouldn't wake up. Instead, he must have thought she was one of the ants because he hit her, hard, right in the arm. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity she was able to pull her husband out of the nightmare. He laid there for a few minutes, his breath heavy, labored. "Where am I?" he asked. "You're at home, safe, everything is ok" she had assured him. "It was just a dream" he said, almost to himself. He then got up out of bed. "Where are you going, are you ok?" she asked concerned. "Yeah, I'm alright, I'm just getting a glass of water." After a few minutes Nick had crawled back into bed, she wrapped her arms tightly around him, and once again asked "are you sure you're ok?" He smiled at her and answered "yes, I'm good, thanks for everything, goodnight honey"_

Jackie then recalled how they both went back to sleep as if nothing had happened. She also remembered the sizable bruise that was left on her arm as a result of the incident. The next day Nick had even asked her what happened after seeing the bruise. She had made up a flimsy excuse about accidently bumping into a desk at work; she didn't have the heart to tell him the truth.

Suddenly the sound of the door bell interrupted her thoughts. She ran to answer the door. "Hi Sara, thanks for getting here so quick" Sara grinned her greeting and said "I think these will take care of the problem" she held up two fire extinguishers "Follow me" Jackie said, and she led Sara into the office. She sprayed some of the ants and to Jackie's relief, the ants were dying. "Where is Nick anyway?" Sara asked. "At the gym" Jackie answered. Sara nodded to the floor and said "this seems to be working, see Nick will never know" "thank god" his wife answered, but Sara had spoken too soon. They both heard the sound of keys rattling in the door, and then Nick's voice "Hun, I'm home" Jackie turned to Sara and said "uh-oh, you keep going, I am going to distract him so he won't come down here." Sara nodded. Jackie went to the door, "Hi Nick, how was your workout?" she asked, giving him a light peck on the lips. "It was nice" he answered. Then he gave her one of his famous smirks and said "there were a lot of hot babes there" she playfully pointed a finger at him and said "behave yourself Nicholas" "I will do my best" he promised, with a cute smile on his face. Then he asked "so how was your day?" Jackie however, did not get a chance to answer him because all of a sudden they heard a loud thud in the office.

Jackie gasped and raced to the office. "Sara" she called. Nick raced after his wife but he had no clue what was going on. When they got downstairs they found Sara in a heap on the floor. "Oh my god, are you alright" Jackie asked concerned. "I'm fine, I'm just a klutz" Sara said, clearly embarrassed. Nick and Jackie quickly helped her up. "What are you doing in here?" Nick asked. Then he looked to Sara's side and saw the fire extinguishers. His eyes grew wide as he exclaimed "oh my god was there a fire, is everyone alright?" "No Nick, there was no fire, everyone is fine" his wife quickly assured him. He looked at Sara and asked "then what is going on?" Sara didn't answer so he looked at his wife, crossed his arms and said "Jackie" and waited for an explanation. Jackie looked at Sara for help but her friend just gave her a helpless, apologetic expression. "Jackie, what is going on here?" Nick asked again, clearly growing impatient. Jackie took a deep breath and said "Nick, I don't want you to panic when I tell you this, promise me you won't." Nick didn't say anything so Jackie pressed again "Nicky, please, promise me" "ok, I promise" Nick said. She took another deep breath, before she said "when I was in here a little earlier, I saw something" she didn't say anything else so Nick encouraged her to continue "what did you see?" he asked. Jackie's gaze met her husbands' "red ants" she finally said. Nick's eyes grew wide, but he didn't say a word, instead he marched right out of the room. "Nick wait" Jackie called after him but he didn't turn around. "Nick, please, just wait a minute" she said again, as she and Sara followed him. When they got out of the office they couldn't find him. "Where did he go?" Jackie asked, turning to Sara. "I'm not sure" Sara said. It was then that Jackie noticed the bedroom light was on, so she and Sara went to the doorway.

What Jackie saw there shocked her. Nick had his suitcase on the bed and he was feverishly throwing clothes into it. "You're leaving me?" Jackie asked astounded. Nick didn't look up but he said "no, you are coming with me." "Where are we going?" she asked. "To a hotel, then first thing in the morning I am calling an exterminator" he said. "What about Chief (the couples' dog), what are we going to do with him?" Jackie asked. "We'll just have to find a pet friendly hotel." He said. "Nick, the ants are dead, all of

them, I killed them with the fire extinguishers" Sara said, trying to ease her friends' mind. Nick didn't even look up at her; he just continued stuffing clothes into his suitcase. Sara went over to him, gently touched his arm, and said "Nick, I promise you, the ants are dead, every single one of them." When Nick still didn't stop tossing clothes in his suitcase she asked "don't you trust me?" "No" Nick said simply. Sara looked shocked, and hurt by his answer. Seeing the look on his friends' face Nick immediately regretted what he just said. "Look, I'm sorry Sara, I didn't mean that, honest, it's just, with this, I want a true professional to come in and make absolutely sure that they are all gone" He then gave her a slight smile and said "and of course I trust you, without you and the rest of the team, I wouldn't be here to have this conversation" Sara returned the smile and said "I understand Nick, believe me I do, I still get shivers down my spine when I see a red sports car" He smiled at her sympathetically. Nick then looked at his wife, and after seeing the look of angst in her husband's eyes she knew what she had to do. She went over to the closet, pulled out her suitcase and started packing her clothes. After she was done packing Nick grabbed both suitcases and headed down the stairs. Nick was getting ready to lock up when Sara said "hey, listen guys, instead of staying at a hotel, come stay at my place, I have plenty of room, two spare bedrooms, I would even give you guys the master bedroom if you want." Then she added "I believe there is even some of Hank's dog food left, Chief can have it" "Thank you very much for the offer Sara, but we couldn't impose" Jackie said. "It wouldn't be an imposition; it would be nice to have someone around the house to talk to" she insisted. Jackie looked at Nick and Nick just shrugged as if to say _it's up to you._ "Well, if you are sure" Jackie said tentatively. "I'm positive" she said. Nick gave Sara a huge smirk and said "won't Gil be upset if you have another man sleep in your house while he is away?" She narrowed her eyes at him and smirked back and said "you know what you are probably right, you will have to sleep outside then, but Jackie can stay inside" Then they all laughed. They took the suitcases, and Chief to Sara's house, and then all three of them went out to dinner.

The next morning Nick kept his word and called the exterminator first thing. When he got off the phone he said to Jackie, "alright, he is going to be there at noon, so you will have to go let him in, and show him where the ants are" Jackie didn't really like that idea very much. "Um, Nick, I don't know if I feel very safe, being alone with a strange man in our house." She told him. "You're right, I'm sorry" Nick said. Then he picked up his phone and dialed another number. He then said into the phone "Hey Jim, it's Nick, I need a big favor" Nick explained what was going on, and then said "alright, thanks Jim, I appreciate it" and hung up the phone. He turned to Jackie and said "Brass will be there with you" Jackie smiled at him and said "thanks babe" He just smiled back.

Brass kept his word and met Jackie at the house. The exterminator was right on time and it didn't take him long to determine that Sara was correct; there were no live ants anymore. "Please make positively sure" Jackie said, knowing that if Nick discovered a live ant, he might sock the guy" The guy assured her that the problem was taken care of.

After the exterminator had left Jackie thanked Brass for meeting her over there. "Sure no problem" he said then added with a shake of his head "Nick sounded pretty freaked out by the whole situation" "He is" Jackie said. Then she added "and I don't blame him one bit" "Me neither" Brass agreed.

After that, Brass went back to his house and Jackie went back over to Sara's to get Nick, and all their stuff. Nick was relieved when she told him that there were no more ants. They gathered up all their things, and they each gave Sara a hug and told her "thanks for everything" "sure no problem, anytime" she said. Then she gave Nick a smirk and said "thanks for staying at the Sidle hotel, that will be two-hundred dollars" Nick chuckled and said "I would have paid one thousand dollars to get away from those nasty ants" She laughed and with one last hug, Nick and Jackie left.

That night while lying in bed, his wife sleeping soundly next to him, with his arm wrapped around her, Nick thought about how truly blessed he was. Not only did he have caring friends who he loved dearly, but his wife was truly one of the nicest, caring, and compassionate people he knew. Without her, he didn't know how he would have gotten through everything he'd been through over the last several years. With an incident such as the ants, most wives would have said _it's been over 5 years since the kidnapping, get over it already._ Not Jackie though, she had been there every step of the way. She never got frustrated or angry with him, she was just always supportive, helping him any way that she can. Jackie loved Nick, that was obvious, and Nick loved her more than anything in the world, and he prayed that he made that obvious to her.

Thank you for reading! This is my first story so I would love your thoughts! Thank you!


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